4 business practices that are damaging your data security

4 business practices that are damaging your data security

Despite this, there’s still some common behaviours within business that’s having a detrimental effect on data security.

It is making it easier for cyber attackers to compromise their systems.

You need to review your current operations strategy and general mindset in order to safeguard your business’ sensitive or confidential data.

Treating the Cloud as the enemy

When we witnessed the race to the Cloud, was met with some level of skepticism in regards to how secure data can be when it’s not hosted onsite.

A few moons ago now, and for the success of any business, IT leaders need to embrace its potential.

From an operational perspective, the Cloud empowers employees in terms of efficiency, agility and productivity.

Of course, we’re not denying that there’s a perceived lack of control, but if your company was to assess the negatives alongside the benefits, then you’ll have a more rounded view of how to implement Cloud into your IT strategy.

You also need to consider your Cloud provider and what security measures they have undertaken to ensure your hosted data is safeguarded and backed up.

Irregular security checks

Businesses that are getting ahead of cyber criminals and responding to data breaches more effectively are the ones who implement routine checks of all systems to detect suspicious and un-authorised activity.

IT departments have a triage approach to data security, reacting to security breaches rather than being proactive to detect threats.

As part of any security audit you conduct, a holistic view is necessary to scope out the wider security challenges and put strategic measures in place to combat data security as a whole.

Lack of staff training

CTO of Green House Data, Cortney Thompson, states that: “Internal attacks are the biggest threats facing your data and systems”.

Whether it’s malicious or accidental, employees are the ones who access servers and networks daily, with multiple accounts and passwords.

Security training, password management and awareness of your business’ security protocol should be communicated at regular intervals throughout the year.

Unhappy staff that pose a potential risk to your data, you should look to inform them of data breach consequences

Careless employees are just as dangerous.

Take John Doe; he’s fairly lapsed about his personal online security, using the same passwords across various different accounts and not bothering to set up a lock on his smartphone.

He takes the same view with work devices.

He even misplaces his company laptop or phone, but he’s under the impression this is fine as he doesn’t understand how important data security is anyway.

If John Doe is, for example, a member of the finance department, then this should be a major cause for concern, as customer credentials and sensitive figures could be hacked into and stolen with little effort.

No BYOD policy

Similar to the above, but a BYOD policy is exactly that; a policy. A set of rules that employees agree to abide by.

Mobile security breaches affected 68% of global organisations throughout the year, proving that there’s still a disconnect between what employers expect and what employees believe to be adequate when it comes to device management.

Employees are constantly sharing information, logging into company portals and downloading documents via their smart devices, but if this goes unmonitored, you automatically put your business in a vulnerable position for data theft.

For more advice on safeguarding your business against the imminent cyber attacks, download our free guide ‘How to Protect Your Business Data’ click HERE

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